new back tips – hip flexor stretch – standing, kneeling, and lying prone

Do you feel pain in the front of your hip or groin area? Perhaps you have pain when you lift up your knee to walk… or maybe you suffer what feels like common lower back pain.

Well, the culprit could be a strained or just tight iliopsoas muscle… What we call the groin muscle or hip flexor. 

The hip flexor attaches to the front of the thigh bone, the femur, and connects to the front of the lumbar vertebrae. When it contracts, it lifts up the knee, causing hip flexion. 

When we sit for extended periods of time, the muscle gets short, losing flexibility… and can itself become painful due to microtears of muscle fibers, and/or it can put unnecessary pulling stress on the lower back.

We need to make the hip flexor longer and more elastic through regular stretching. We’ll show you three quick stretches for the hip flexors from different positions.

First, from the standing position… the “Captain Morgan’s“ stretch requires a surface about the height of a chair. Lift the leg opposite the side to be stretched and place your foot on the chair or other solid surface. The more flexible you are, the further back your foot on the ground will be from the chair.

Now, with both hands on the bent knee, keeping your trunk upright, lean forward, until you feel a good stretch of that down leg, groin muscle. Stretch to a point of reasonable discomfort and hold for 20 to a maximum of 30 seconds. Release and perform on the opposite side.

From the kneeling position, place the foot on the opposite side to be stretched as far forward as you can while still keeping your knee bent and your foot flat on the ground.

Again, with both hands on that up and bent knee, keep your trunk upright, and lean forward until you feel a good stretch of that down leg, groin muscle. Once again, stretch to a point of reasonable discomfort, and hold for 20 to a maximum of 30 seconds. Release and perform on the opposite side.

Finally, from the cobra position, and you can check out our video on getting to that cobra position, push the hip of whichever side you want to stretch down toward the mat or floor until you feel reasonable discomfort in front of your hip on that side. Hold for 20 to a maximum of 30 seconds. Release and perform on the opposite side.

That’s it! You have now lengthened and made more elastic your hip flexors, and will walk with less discomfort in your groin and lower back.

Remember, when your alignment is less than perfect and/or you have suffered recent injury, joints get stuck, soft tissues have memory for what doesn’t work, and we can help. 

Contact us at New Back Chiropractic today. We can help you move better to feel better for life.